Fisheries and the marine environment in Nova Scotia : Measuring sustainable development : application of the Genuine progress index to Nova Scotia

The stability and high value of the fishery GDP through the 1980s (see Figure 1), along with the growing employment levels in the industry during this period (see Figure 15), did not warn of the declining health of the groundfish stocks and the impending collapse of the fishery. [...] Despite modest increases in the value of the haddock and pollock stocks in the 1990s and 2000s respectively, the value of all groundfish stocks in the region remains low compared to the historically high levels of the mid- to late-1980s. [...] With Nova Scotia‘s fisheries and marine environment being the backbone of many of the province‘s largest industries, bringing in millions of dollars in revenue for the province each year, a deterioration in the ecological health of the marine environment will undoubtedly have a negative impact on the province‘s economy and society as a whole. [...] The number of fishers employed in Nova Scotia decreased greatly from the highs experienced in the late 1980s and early 1990s to much lower levels later in the 1990s following the collapse of the groundfish fishery. [...] If healthy fisheries and protection of the marine environment are important to us, we clearly need a set of measures that better reflect the reality of what we value and that assess the wellbeing of the fishery and the marine environment more accurately.